It doesn't matter what you do, modern jobs seem to require that everyone barrage you with email at all hours of the day. If you're feeling overwhelmed and like you'll never get back to a clean inbox, here are ten of our favorite tips to help you manage the ever-growing mountain of email.

9. Learn Your Email Values

Lots of time you spend dealing with email is spent writing email, and clearing up confusion with email you sent earlier. Spend less time on email and more time working by practicing good email habits: like clarity, concision, making it actionable, and relevance. The less time you spend communicating simple ideas, the less time you'll spend sifting through your inbox.

7. Don't Check It Too Often

Whatever you do, don't be a slave to your email notifications. Answering your email every time you see that little popup, hear that little ding, or watch that icon badge climb up another point will kill your productivity. Assign yourself a 15-minute minimum for email checking: Let the emails come in, and then check it periodically throughout your day instead of every time a new one comes in. And don't check it first thing in the morning, either, or you'll never get anything done.

5. Keep It Under Control When You're On Vacation

If you think your email is overloaded, wait until you come back from a week-long vacation—it becomes an unclimbable mountain. Instead of dreading your vacation, take an actual delete-all-email sabbatical. Let everyone know you'll be gone, set up an auto-responder that tells them to email you back later, and delete everything that comes in. That way, you come back to an empty inbox, and anything important enough to wait for your return will be re-sent when you come home.

4. Use Text Expansion to Save Yourself Hours of Typing

If you find you're typing a lot of the same phrases over and over again in email, it's time to automate that. We've long advocated using a system-wide text expander that replaces tiny snippets of text with oft-used phrases. That way, when you need to type a canned response, an address, or any other tedious amount of text, you can just hit a few keys on your keyboard and be on your way to the next email.

1. Triage Your Email to an Empty Inbox

In the end, the best way to get to inbox zero is to get your email out of your inbox, act on it, then archive it away. We've always advocated triaging your inbox with the trusted trio of folders: Follow Up, Archive, and Hold. If you can get by without ever leaving a read message in your inbox, you'll be able to achieve that mental peace you've always wished for. Check out our full guide to email triage to learn more.

These aren't the only tips that'll help you keep a clean inbox, but they're some of the ones we've found most useful over the years. Got your own tip or trick to dealing with a constant barrage of messages? Let us know about it in the comments.